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“A picture is worth a thousand words,” the
age-old adage goes. And this is particularly true in real
estate, which is why it’s so critical for sellers to make sure
their agents post polished photos that tell an accurate story
about their home, while showing it in its best light. That said,
in most listing systems and property flyers, you don’t have the
opportunity to post a thousand words’ worth of text describing
your home: you might get 100 words, at best - and many systems
limit you to just a couple of hundred characters in total.

To market your home like a pro, you’ve got to make sure that
every single one of these precious characters counts, adding
something powerful to the picture that your home’s listing photos
have already created. Here’s a double-digit list of words,
phrases and word families that you and your listing agent can use
to craft a vivid listing description of your home - and the
lifestyle you want buyers to visualize living in it.

1. “Walkable to. . .” Listen, I’m
aware that some people feel the phrase “walk to” is fraught with
political correctness pitfalls, from possible insensitivities to
our friends and relatives who cannot walk due to a physical
disability to vagaries and confusion presented by wide variances
in what you and I might consider “walkable.” But the
concept is valid: home buyers have a soft spot in their hearts
for homes that are highly accessible to the shops, parks, cafes
and cultural amenities they want to make a part of their everyday
lives.

The results of a study by Walkscore.com bears this out: buyers
are simply willing to pay more for homes with high “walkability”
rankings, compared with homes in sprawling neighborhoods where
cars are necessary to get to and from essentials.

Accordingly, if your home is within walking distance or otherwise
well-located vis-a-vis nearby conveniences, you should shout it
from the rooftops. I mean, include it in your listing
description.

To do this, you might actually include the hot spots and major
employers your home is “walkable to” if you and your agent agree
that it’s the best way to paint the picture of your home’s
proximity to desirable amenities and community resources.
Alternatively, consider strategies like giving a precise
distance, number of blocks or length of the drive (at the
legal speed limit) it would take to get from your home to the
target amenities, on average.

2. Feel, floor plan and flow. Words which
indicate that a home is characterized by stretches of clean,
clear space, light, flow and openness of floor plan are generally
attractive to buyers, and can trigger their interest in coming to
see your home. However, what is even more important in a listing
description is that you avoid the temptation to flat-out
manipulate buyers/readers by inaccurately describing your home in
an effort to get them there at any cost!

If your home has a darker, more compartmentalized floor plan,
don’t say it’s bright and open - instead, reference it as
offering a more formal style of living, or leave the ‘flow’
descriptions out entirely and let the pictures do that work
instead.

3. Lifestyle upgrades for first-time
buyers. If your home is in an area, a price range or has
other characteristics that are treasured by first-time buyers,
you can get major bang out of every listing description word by
simply mentioning the ways in which life in your home would
represent a big lifestyle upgrade compared to living in an
apartment or a rental. For example, dropping verbal clues that
your home has ample storage spaces, offers exceptional privacy
and quiet, or has uniquely usable furnished or otherwise
ready-to-enjoy outdoor living spaces are all mentions that can
capture the attention of even the most bargain-hungry first-time
buyers.

4. Materials. If your home’s finishes
include materials that your agent feels are particularly desired
by buyers in your area, you might want to call those materials
out in your home’s listing. In fact, in their 2005 book
Freakonomics, economists Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner ran
some numbers and found five words which, when present in
listings, were positively correlated with higher purchase prices
- and three of the five were finish materials: granite, Corian
and maple. (The other two? State-of-the-art and gourmet.)

As you explore whether you should be calling out your home’s
finish materials in your listing description, keep in mind two
things: (1) what buyers prefer changes over time, and (2)
different buyers prefer different materials. So, while
granite counters and hardwood floors were the materials du jour a
couple of years back, buyers are increasingly responsive to
mentions of more avant garde materials like concrete countertops
and cork floors.

5. Brand names. Describing your home’s
style or design aesthetic with reference to brand names is a
pithy, yet power-packed, way to communicate a great deal of
information and paint a contextual and stylistic picture, with
very few words. For example, describing a home as Pottery
Barn chic sparks images of family-style living spaces that are
well-coordinated and comfortable. While declaring that your
home’s decor or fittings are styled after a Restoration Hardware
aesthetic creates images of upscale, polished and modern takes on
vintage-inspired looks. You’d better believe that people in
the market for homes are also in the market for designs and
furnishings, a truth you can use to create a quick mental image
of your home by evoking any brand with a particularly strong
aesthetic, from Crate and Barrel to Neiman Marcus.

Another way brand names can be powerfully included in your home’s
listing is joint with #1, by indicating the popular stores and
shopping corridors that are conveniently accessible from the
property. Mentioning the home’s proximity to “shopping and
dining” is good; detailing that it is less than a half-mile from
Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and the Elmwood shops is great.

And, of course, if your kitchen appliances are Wolf, Viking or
Miele, your closets were custom-designed by California Closets or
your home has other name-brand built-ins or items you’re
including in the sale that are valuable and sought-after, drop
those brand names, too!
6. Neighborhood names. If your home is in a
desirable or up-and-coming neighborhood, don’t just assume that
buyers are going to find it by searching for listings on a map,
within a certain radius or within a particular zip code.
Including the actual name of your district or neighborhood
allows your home’s listing to become searchable for that
term.

In particular, if your home typifies a style of home for which
your area is well-known, dropping the names of both the
neighborhood and the style can pack a one-two punch with just a
couple of words, e.g. Westbrook Victorian, Broadmoor Tudor and
Rockridge Craftsman.

7. “Built-in” or “custom.” Caveat:
throwing a custom hot rod tricycle, bonsai tree trimming workshop
or other arcane “value-adds” into the deal is not necessarily a
compelling proposition for buyers. But if you have had
custom features with wide appeal built into your home, you should
definitely consider mentioning them.

8. On trend features. I’m not suggesting
that you stage or change your home to make it line up with
short-lived trends, but I am suggesting that you work with your
agent to keep your finger on the pulse of current shifts in what
buyers like and make sure to trigger those preferences with
mentions of your home’s features that map to buyer’s wish lists.

For example, urban farming is hot right now - if you have a
kitchen garden, a chicken coop or an in-ground composter, make
mention of them in your listing. In the same vein, buyers
are looking for home with features that are both environmentally
and financially responsible, so if your home has solar panels,
dual-paned windows, low-flow shower heads or was recently
remodeled with low-VOC paints and no-emission/sustainable
flooring, these green features should also be considered for
inclusion in your home’s listing description.

9. Little kitchen luxuries. Buyers
like food prep space, plentiful counter space, professional-grade
appliances and - that Holy Grail of kitchen features: islands.
Other mention-worthy kitchen features that can change a buyer
from indifferent to interested in a viewing include breakfast
nooks, vegetable sinks and pot-fillers (a plumbed-in faucet right
over the stove) and stoves that run on gas (vs. electric).
10. Differentiators from the competition.
Think of your home’s listing description as a luxury
chauffeur that escorts prospective buyers right to the very best
features of your home. Don’t make buyers have to hunt around for
the reasons why they should see your home instead of the one
across the street! If your home is on a premium lot, or has an
extra bathroom or a mother-in-law unit compared to the others for
sale in your subdivision or town at the same price range -
mention it. And same goes for pricing, condition or
incentives you’re offering, like prepaid HOA dues or closing cost
credits: whatever your home has going for it that others lack
should be front and center in your listing.

ALL: What words have you seen in listings that you found
particularly powerful - or powerless?